Selected Contributions


South Africa - Zapping for Drugs

On a Sunday afternoon in June of 1999, I got a phone call about a meeting being held that night to plan a “party.” As a veteran of numerous AIDS protests with ACT UP/NY, I knew that meant an action was taking shape, but I had no idea that this meeting and the subsequent actions would reshape the nature of my activism and would play an important part in changing the way the U.S. responded to the global AIDS crisis.

Prior to that night, I had never worked on global AIDS issues. First, we had plenty of problems right here at home (and still do): overly expensive drugs that led some states to restrict access; a continuing epidemic among my…


South Africa - Young people raising the banners of freedom

It may look like we’re playing on different football fields in the struggle for freedom, democracy and equality, but what links us all together is that wherever we are, history is repeated, from the oppression in South Africa in the apartheid years to that of Zimbabwe and Swaziland today. So in our 24/7 lifestyle, it may seem like a struggle to think for a moment, let alone take action in solidarity with our friends in this region - but that struggle is nothing compared to the struggle that they endure on a daily basis. And so our experiences on Sunday 15th June, the day before Youth Day in South Africa, gave us an inspirational reminder of this.

We started the…


Johannesburg - In a city of walls I have none

My story is not as grand or noble as some might very well be, but here in the context of Johannesburg, one of the most violent walled cities in the world, it is my small vote of resistance in a society that is supposed to be ‘rainbow nation’ dream, but in fact is an increasingly ghettoised culture of radical difference and dividedness. Johannesburg is a city of walls. People who visit this city can’t believe their eyes at how high and thick and electrified the walls of this city actually are. The security industry is one of this country’s biggest economic engines. I live in a suburb where my nearby neighbour recently ran up the street on a Friday night…



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